Kuwait and Bangladesh signed a technical agreement on the recruitment of workers and skilled laborers from the South Asian country to the oil-rich emirate, said Bangladeshi Ambassador Abdulla al-Hassan.

The deal, signed by Kuwait's Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Abdel Wahab al-Wazzan and Bangladeshi Minister of Labor and Employment Mohammad Abdulmannan, effectively ends a ban on the recruitment of Bangladeshi labor to Kuwait.

Hassan told AFP that Bangladeshi workers, especially skilled, are now free to come to Kuwait after obtaining the necessary official permits.

Kuwait slapped a total ban on the recruitment of any more Bangladeshi workers in 1999, apparently after a Bangladeshi laborer strangled his 90-year-old Kuwaiti employer, stole his money and fled home.

The two countries are expected to sign a criminal extradition treaty to extradite the laborer after his recent arrest in Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed who arrived in Kuwait on Monday met with the Emir and held official talks with Kuwait's acting Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

On Tuesday, she met with the ministers of oil, interior and finance, addressed representatives of the 200,000-strong Bangladeshi community here, and visited the 5,000 Bangladeshi troops stationed in Kuwait.

The troops were deployed mainly for mine-clearing and other missions after the 1991 Gulf War when a US-led multinational force ended a seven-month Iraqi occupation of the tiny but oil-rich state.

No new loans were committed by Kuwait during the visit, but issues relating to economic assistance were discussed, Hassan said.

Kuwait had previously granted Dhaka soft loans worth just under 300 million dollars for mainly infrastructure development projects, the ambassador added – KUWAIT CITY (AFP)